As Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was announced as being active against the San Francisco 49ers, the stadium had different ideas.
The start of Monday Night Football at Candlestick Park in San Francisco was delayed when a transformer exploded just outside the stadium.
The start of the game was delayed for about 30 minutes. The lights went out for a second time around 6:45 p.m. causing a second delay of game that lasted 16 minutes in the second quarter.
During both outages, ESPN showed aerial footage of fans sitting in their seats waiting for the lights to go back on. Fans remained calm according to reports from the scene
Multiple PG&E crews were on site to determine the cause, according to PG&E.
The unexpected outage had many in the stands and on the field thinking it was an earthquake.
The transformer that exploded appeared to only provide power to the stadium. No other parts of San Francisco were impacted.
Following the second outage, an official with the NFL told ESPN that if the power went out a third time, they would attempt to stay and finish the game Monday night. He said the game would be called if power could not be restored or if there was a threat to public safety during an outage.
As for contingency plans: the NFL announced they would finish the game at Candlestick Tuesday afternoon if necessary.
During the nationally televised game, ESPN commentators said on several occasions that the outages were an embarrassment to the city of San Francisco.
Candlestick Park is one of the oldest stadiums in the league and the outage is sure to start the debate for the dire need for the 49ers to get a new stadium.
The stadium was built in 1960 and the 49ers began playing in the park in 1972.
